Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Economic Security Strategy) Bill 2008, theAppropriation (Economic Security Strategy) Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 and the Appropriation (Economic Security Strategy) Bill (No. 2) 2008-2009. The Rudd government released its Economic Security Strategy last month, including spending measures totalling $10.4 billion, with $9.6 billion to be spent in 2008-09. That represents half the forecast budget surplus. The social security bill provides $4.8 billion in a one-off payment to pensioners, carers, senior health care card holders and veterans and $3.8 billion in payments to families, with payments scheduled to be made from 8 December 2008. Other measures include $1.5 billion for first home buyers and $187 million for training.

I welcome some relief for the most vulnerable members of my community, who have suffered under the strain of rapidly rising cost-of-living pressures over the last 12 months and the underlying rate of inflation, now at a 17-year high under the Rudd Labor government. This is well overdue. Only now are pensioners being given relief, after being denied a fair deal for far too long. I must make it clear that this one-off pension bonus in Labor’s $10.4 billion package does not include an increase in the base rate. So, while pensioners will undoubtedly welcome the money, it does not come with a commitment from the Rudd Labor government to raise the base rate. Pensioners are not assured that under the Rudd government they will receive any more money in the future. A future without financial certainty does not inspire hope for our pensioners.

After much oscillating from the Rudd government’s three wise men on addressing the survival gap for pensioners, the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation have spun their way to this decision. One said that there would be no increase to pensions and one said that they will wait for the outcome of yet another review, but they all said that they could not live on the current pension rate of $273.40 per week. Finally, a decision was made when the Prime Minister consulted his crystal ball and got a hunch that the economy was going to worsen. Since coming to office, the ‘Rudd review fest’ has established a massive 165 committees. This style of government does not come cheap and I have to ask these questions: how much money has been spent on these reviews? How much has been paid to consultants? How much red tape has been created by the government, which spun the line to Australians prior to the election that they would cut red tape?

On 21 February 2008, in my address in reply to the Governor-General’s speech, I made what is becoming an increasingly significant observation. If you recall, I observed:

With an economic crisis evolving in various parts of the world, let me say that managing a trillion-dollar economy is not a game. We need to keep vigilant. In unsteady and inexperienced hands, with outside interference from the unions, all that we have achieved as a nation could be in jeopardy. This great nation could be set back 20 years in terms of both the economy and employment.

Isn’t it infuriating that my forecast for Australia’s economic and unemployment climate under the Rudd Labor government is now begrudgingly accurate? Labor governments both past and present have made a mess of the Australian economy and have driven unemployment figures sky high. During the Hawke-Keating Labor government era, Australians endured an average inflation rate of 5.2 per cent, while in stark comparison under the former Howard government inflation averaged only 2.5 per cent. During the Hawke-Keating government period the maximum standard variable home loan rate rose to 17 per cent, while under the former Howard government it dropped drastically to 6.05 per cent. And I do not need to remind this House that government debt under the previous Labor government rose to $96 billion.

Labor governments have a long history of driving the Australian economy into the ground, and the Rudd Labor government has proved in only 12 months that it is no exception. The economic mismanagement of the country by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer since coming to office in November last year has severely damaged Australia’s economy and is seriously threatening Australian jobs. The coalition left to the Rudd Labor government unemployment at its lowest level since 1974. Under the former Howard government, more young Australians took up apprenticeships than ever before, which is vitally important when there is a skills shortage in our nation. The coalition remains committed to creating long-term solutions, unlike the Rudd Labor government, which is all about quick, bandaid fixes that are ultimately all spin and no substance.

The Rudd Labor government are using the global financial crisis as an excuse for their utter incompetence and mismanagement. After all, from day one they talked down our economy. They said they would end the blame game, but all they have been masters of is finding someone to blame for everything. I demand that the government release the current economic forecasts. Is it that the Treasurer does not understand these figures or is it simply that he cannot find them? I fear that the Treasurer will sit on these statistics until he can understand them himself, and at that rate they may never be released. If it takes the Treasurer three minutes and 20 seconds to find a piece of paper detailing the inflation figures from notes actually in front of him, then we could be waiting years for these figures and even longer for a solution. The Rudd Labor government must deliver on what they promised to the Australian people. Working families know what they heard and they know what they were promised, and it was not 165 reviews, commissions and talkfests.

The Rudd Labor government are hypocritical in the highest degree. Prior to the election, Labor said they were economic conservatives, but their management of the economy proves that Labor are really economic vandals. Here we see history repeat itself yet again. The coalition, the real economic conservatives, build the nation’s wealth, keep unemployment low and work on keeping the national purse in the black. By contrast, after only 12 months Labor are already projecting a rise in unemployment and the budget going into deficit and are spending our savings.

I first entered politics to build a better future for my children—indeed, all children. Under this Labor government, I am now very nervous for the future of the children of our nation and the legacy Labor’s policies will leave for them. In opposition the Labor Party were vehemently against one-off payments. The current Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs said in 2004 that her ‘No. 1 concern’ about the baby bonus was that it was ‘being paid in a lump sum’. The current Minister for the Status of Women said in 2007 that the baby bonus should have been paid fortnightly to remove the ‘jackpot effect’. Furthermore, in an interview conducted by the ABC Insiders program as recently as 27 June 2007, the current Treasurer said that lump sum payments were ‘dishonest and irresponsible’.

So, could the three wise men—and I use that term lightly—the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, please explain why it is that they are resorting to bandaid measures in an attempt to rescue the economy when they have repeatedly condemned lump sum payments? Perhaps they will not have an answer. Is it that the Rudd Labor government are in the game of saying one thing and doing something entirely different? While these questions remain unanswered, I fear the Australian economy will continue to sink faster than the Titanic. The government will blame the global financial crisis for every event that occurs hereafter. However incompetent and however bungled the government’s management of the economy, they will blame the global financial crisis.

In talking about the financial climate, let me assure you that the Australian economy is, metaphorically speaking, facing the prospect of a catastrophic hole in its ozone layer. It will not be too long before Australians will feel the unbearable burn of the Rudd Labor government’s utter incompetence and inability to manage the economy. The cancerous consequences of a poisoned economy will take years to recover from and the diagnosis is looking increasingly poor if the Rudd Labor government does not take proper steps now to ensure the long-term economic viability of our nation. The Rudd Labor government is clearly out if its depth, and the Treasurer’s performance to date does not give me any confidence at all that he is able to manage our economy. Incredibly, the Prime Minister and Treasurer admitted, after persistent questioning, that the government announced this package without any economic analysis from the Treasury. In fact, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer will spend half the forecast surplus without any modelling to show it will have the desired impact. Shame on you!

The coalition wholeheartedly believes that more support should be given to Australian pensioners. However, a one-off bonus is not the answer. This is not a game of Deal or No Deal; we cannot gamble with the financial security of Australians, who have given so much to the building of our nation. Now that the government has spent half its surplus, what happens if things get worse? At this rate, inevitably they will. The finance minister is telling people to spend, spend, spend this one-off payment and not save the money to help pay ongoing cost-of-living expenses. What tricks do the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the finance minister have up their sleeves for after Christmas, when much of the money has been spent but pensioners are still struggling to get by on $273.40 a week? Of course, there will be no tricks available and Australian pensioners will again be asking for assistance to see them through their hardship—and rightly so, I might add.

The former, Howard government were committed to pensioners. In 1997 we linked the age pension to growing incomes so that when the Australian economy boomed pensioners were not left behind. The former, Howard government also increased pensions at two per cent a year above the rate of inflation. Yet the Prime Minister and the Treasurer attacked the economic legacy of the Howard government and claimed inflation was out of control. The Treasurer said the ‘inflation genie was out of the bottle’ and the Prime Minister said there was an ‘inflation monster’ damaging the economy—more spin. Incredibly, we saw the government of the day talking down the Australian economy on the world stage, creating a crisis in confidence.

It was also the former, Howard government that introduced a utilities allowance, encouraged workforce participation, halved the assets test taper rate and introduced a fairer taxation regime for self-funded retirees. Australian pensioners were much better off under the coalition government. The Australian economy was much better off under the coalition government. In fact, Australia as a whole was much better off under the coalition government. We here in the blue corner are not into cheap publicity stunts. We are not into playing the boy who cried wolf. We do not break promises or lead the Australian public astray with undeliverable ideals. We did not frivolously spend half the forecast surplus budget without thinking about the long-term repercussions.

In times of a global financial crisis we need to travel with more precaution, looking not only at those vehicles around us but also at the warning lights ahead. This is what the Howard government did when there was the Asian meltdown, SARS, US recessions, 9-11 and all the other global economic crises over the past 12 years. The coalition took positive, decisive action that saw Australia through these tough times, all the time growing our economy and taking all Australians on the journey with us. The Rudd Labor government must answer why they have spent half the forecast surplus without any modelling to show how it will have the desired impact on our economy. They are flying blind and the consequences are dire.

With a limited surplus, how do the Rudd Labor government plan on delivering their mostly unfulfilled election promises? What will happen to the nation-building infrastructure fund now? Funding for the F3 link road, one of the most significant roads in the Hunter, was an $870 million commitment by the coalition on top of the money already provided to start the project. The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has refused to commit to funding for the F3 Seahampton to Branxton link road. Can you tell me why it is that the four Hunter Labor MPs are not standing up for their region in this parliament? The members for Hunter, Newcastle, Charlton and Shortland for years all cried foul on the F3 funding, but now they have the purse strings what have they done? Mr Deputy Speaker, you would be right in saying there is another review—no action, just another review.

The silence from the four Hunter Labor MPs about the F3 has been absolutely deafening. The member for Hunter boasted on the F3 link website that he is behind the project all the way, but after 18 years of campaigning, including 11 years in opposition demanding the F3 link be funded, he would win a gold medal in Beijing for his world-class backflip. Now he has the government purse as a cabinet minister, it shows that Labor never had any intention of funding the project. The minister has now confirmed this. The member for Hunter was widely quoted in the media as saying that if it was on the coalition’s bottom line then Labor would match it, but within days of the Rudd Labor government being elected we had the member for Hunter doing a backflip on the funding for the black spot in his very own electorate.

These projects are not wants; they are desperate community needs. I urge the government to accede to the people’s needs on this issue and provide the funding. Excuses such as it is a state issue or it is a local government issue do not cut it anymore. Remember, Prime Minister, you said that this is the end of the blame game and the buck stops with you. Given the Treasurer’s flippancy in managing the budget, it is unlikely that the F3 project will ever be federally funded whilst the Rudd Labor government rules.

The Prime Minister, in what can only be described as a senseless act, axed the Investing in Our Schools Program, putting the funding pressure for much-needed facilities back on the parents and communities that already do so much. This is perhaps one of the Prime Minister’s biggest mistakes as investing in the future of our children’s education is paramount. As I have previously stated in this House, Rudd’s education revolution has quickly become an education dissolution.

So where does the Prime Minister plan to get the money from to get our nation’s education facilities to world-class standards as he promised, bailing out incompetent state governments? And whatever happened to the Rudd Labor government’s promise to put a trade training centre in every Australian secondary school? That is right, the Rudd Labor government dropped the ball on that promise too. This broken promise means that there will not be a trade training centre in every school in Paterson, as the Prime Minister explicitly promised last year. This promise was a cruel hoax and will not do anything to encourage more apprentices or to address the skills shortages in the Paterson electorate. The former Howard government worked tirelessly to create a world-class apprenticeship system.

The list does not end there. The Prime Minister has failed to deliver on his promise to establish defence family healthcare clinics for defence personnel and their families. What a cheap publicity stunt that was. I have listened to so many ADF families who are angry that the promise of free basic health care at special defence clinics has been completely abandoned. Labor went to the last election promising to do more for our Defence Force families—brandishing a $33.1 million carrot by promising to establish 12 healthcare clinics. Budget night saw this commitment slashed back to $12.2 million, with only $2.4 million provided in the 2008-09 budget for a limited trial to be provided through another undelivered Rudd government election promise of GP clinics. Now the plan is for more trials, more reviews, more words and no action. Quite frankly, our ADF families deserve better. They do not deserve to be used as political pawns by the Rudd Labor government. Labor went to the election saying they understood the unique challenges and problems faced by defence families in accessing health care when on rigorous posting cycles. Obviously, they do not.

It would seem that, as the rhetoric from the Rudd Labor government has pushed the Australian economy spiralling out of control, so too proportionately does the number of unfulfilled Rudd Labor government promises continue to escalate. If the Rudd Labor government listened to Australian working families, which they claim to represent, then they would know that the actions they are taking at present are not enough. Australia’s economy, once an international reference point on good management, has now accelerated out of control to a point where it is crashing at a rate greater than other comparable countries. For God’s sake, if they do not know what they are doing, at least get out of the way and let those that do correct their mistakes before it is too late

I actively listen to the constituents in the Paterson electorate. I know that they are amidst great financial hardship at the moment and I know that the ‘Christmas bonus’ will be a welcome relief. However, I have also been repeatedly asked what will become of the financial struggle after the money runs out? Will the government commit to ongoing funds? That is the real issue. The hard-fought surplus delivered by the former Howard government is not a magic pudding. The Rudd government cannot say ‘Me too’ anymore and copy the coalition’s policies. It has to come up with its own solutions. Unfortunately for the people of Australia, the Rudd team are not up to the job and they are going to need more than a crystal ball or an Aladdin’s lamp to solve this crisis. As the former Labor leader Mark Latham learnt, there is no magic pudding.

Labor have created a crisis in confidence that will take years to heal in the Australian psyche. I said the other day in this House that Kevin 07 has definitely become Mistake 08. The future of our nation is at risk here along with our economic viability and our trading ability. The world is seeing a financial situation that has not been seen for decades and we need to have careful management. We need to make sure that resources and references are well established and that the economic process that is undertaken in delivering a future direction for this country is well founded. It cannot work on hipshot announcements that come out just to snatch a 90-second grab on the TV or the radio. I say to the Labor Party that our leader, Malcolm Turnbull, has offered to sit down in a bipartisan manner to work through the issues facing this nation. But the Labor Party seem to think a bipartisan manner is sitting down, discussing issues and then just agreeing with everything the government do without questioning or, indeed, offering up the experience of a government that had run this country so well for the last 12 years.

There will be many challenges that face us, and I fear most for those who are disadvantaged in our community. This one-off funding package does not relate to a continual, ongoing increase in their weekly budget—something that is so drastically needed as they fight the tight economic times. Our leader has said we will not oppose these bills—we will support these bills—because, after a long wait, those in need in our community desperately need it. But it might have been more prudent for this money to be set down not only this year but for years to come as a $30 increase in the pensioners’ budget each and every week. I commend these bills to the House.

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